a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Playoffs R1G2: K.O.

Thank goodness we have @da_breezman to cheer us up with this lovely portrait of a lovely river cruise on a lovely afternoon in San Antonio. I know many of you have always wanted a glimpse of Boler’s milky-white thighs. You can decide for yourself what Harpring’s hand is doing.

You know what else is hilarious? Re-reading pre-game comments after the game:

Quotage** Tyrone Corbin on possibly changing rotations/lineups in Game 3: We have to play better. I don’t care who we put on the floor….the guys just have to understand, this is a different bowl of wax here.** Devin Harris on what Ty said at halftime: Just continue to play…come out, just be aggressive, and see what happens.** Jamaal Tinsley, on whether this game was an embarrassment: I don’t think embarrassed. I think we competed. We couldn’t make shots. We couldn’t stop nobody. I don’t think nobody gave up, so I don’t see the embarrassment.** Derrick Favors, on whether the Jazz feel embarrassed: Nah, nah, nah, nah, we don’t. We fought to get here and we gon’ keep fighting. If we lose, we gon’ go down swinging.

Like this:

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1) Words cannot express how disappointed I am with Big Al tonight. His complete lack on effort running back on D and mistakes on D really set the tone tonight. If I were Ty, whoever doesn’t run back on D with effort rides the pine.

2) You know a game sucks when the discussion about which flags of Brazilian states are the best looking was actually so much more interesting than the game that two Jazz fans ended the discussion before tuning back in.

Though I was also disappointed, I saw it a little differently. Yes, Al (and some of the other guys) couldn’t seem to be bothered to run back on D, but a lot of the guys also looked completely LOST out there. They didn’t seem to know where to be or where the other guys were and that resulted in a lot of poor 1-on-1 possessions.

Add that to Paul’s post-game comments about how he had no idea how this happened and Ty saying the guys have to understand they need to play for 48 minutes and it seems to me the players weren’t properly prepped on what to expect in the Playoffs — which is crucial considering how many of them have limited or no Playoff experience.

P.S. That second part was classic. At least you managed to find another Jazz fan to hang out with!

Yes, on offense things looked pretty bleak. It really looked like the Spurs knew our plays better than us. Some of the spacing was awkward, they were not reading the defense and moving accordingly. Ty’s and Paul’s comments are a testament to the trouble we’re in.

But still, if there is one thing I would like our guys to get is the aggression and purpose with which the Spurs play. If I had the chance, I’d put on my phone the video of the play Duncan outran Al the whole court on game one and got an easy dunk out of it in game one. I’d show it to Al and ask him if he thought that maybe has something to do with him having a record of 1-24 against Duncan.

It seems Al thinks he can jog back on D as long as Duncan is near him, but the Spurs are thriving on many of those 4 on 4 seconds, getting easy open 3s or layups. I can’t believe our guys aren’t realizing that and committing to running harder. The Spurs were up 40 and still running harder!

To conclude this humble rant, I must say I’m glad we got the Spurs. They are humiliating our guys like no one else would and this reality check is the best possible thing for future improvement. If Al can’t learn, too bad for him, Favors was guilty of those things until midseason and seems to have learned. There’s no remedy like sunshine. :P